Battle Network X
by Darket
Summary: (Finished) Somewhere in the near future, an orginization called Tericon begins a large system update. Something is going wrong and it's up to a new Navi named "X.EXE" to find out. Violence, lot's of action. A little scary for young audiences. R and R
1. XEXE

**Battle Network X**

**Chapter 1**

"**X.EXE"**

The computer sitting on Aaron's desk always was on. It was one of the new models in the PC line. The sun rose and the light pierced through the window. The room filled with light and Aaron's dog ran outside to go bark at traffic as normal. Aaron woke up and his alarm went off seconds later. Summer break was 2 days away, same as his Navi. For weeks, he had been using home made programs to build the ultimate Navi. When that was done he would upload it and start virus busting. He turned on the computer and a sticky note blocked part of the screen. It had the number for the nearest dial up company.

"Welcome… Now beginning virus scan." The computer voice said.

Aaron pulled out a cigarette and reached for his notepad. The virus scan was nearly finished and he lit the cigarette. His mom woke up and knocked on his door.

"Aaron, turn those speakers down. Oh, I got a note from your teacher the other day." His mom said.

"I hope it was something good. I have to get some work done on my Navi." Aaron replied as he typed.

She walked away and Aaron opened up a file titled "X.EXE". He looked at his Navi and continued working on it. Rem showed up at his front door and hour later and Aaron met up with her.

"Your early." Aaron said.

"Yeah, I had some extra work to do. How's your Navi coming along?" Rem asked.

"Good, I should have it completed soon. I always remembered to bring a second disk to use it on the go. Here's your helmet." Aaron replied as he handed her the helmet.

They got on the Moped and drove through the neighborhood. New residents were occupying a house down the road. Aaron ignored them and drove on. A car pulled into the driveway and Lan got out. He looked around and walked inside.

"I'm going to miss the old neighborhood." Lan said.

His PET was off and his parents unpacked the stuff in his room. The new computer was set up and he started it up to see if the Internet was up.

Across town, the computers at the Police Department were starting to fail. A Virus had been uploaded into them causing the computers to slow down. A cop drove down the road and he tried to use his computer. A 911 call came in reporting a high-speed chase.

"All units report to Briarwood Park. There is a high speed chase in pursuit." The woman said.

The cop couldn't get directions and his computer refused to work. He picked up his radio and asked for directions. Aaron drove down the road and a man waved towards them.

"Mr., I need your help! You're the first one to stop. I will greatly reward you if you give me a ride to Tericon Communications industries. Will you help me?" the scientist asked.

"Ok… At least I get to test out how this 3 seat works." Aaron said.

"But Aaron, we'll be late for school!" Rem said.

Aaron popped out the third seat and the scientist got on. Rem was worried about being late and Aaron smiled.

"We have 30 minutes. I can make it to Tericon and to the High School in time." Aaron said.

They drove down the road and Lan's parents pulled in closely behind. They were going to pay off the moving company and Lan was fiddling around with his Net Navi. The light up ahead was red and it went green. The lights on all ends of the road were red and a speeding car from the high-speed pursuit drove in. A cop car was following it up closely and Aaron looked to his right. The first thing he saw a bright red car slamming into his Moped. Lan covered his head and his dad tried to swerve around the Moped. The scientist was hit and his arm go run over. Aaron flew over the top of the red car and he hit the windshield of the cop car. Rem hit the road and rolled towards a streetlight. A wave of shattered glass hit him and the cop car slammed into the side of the car. Aaron hit the ground and he tried to move. The lights were acting strange and Aaron got up. He saw his crushed Moped and then he looked at Rem. She was out cold and Aaron ran towards her.

"REM!" Aaron screamed, as he got closer to her.

Lan opened his eyes and he could hear Aaron screaming. Mrs. Hikaru saw the scientist on the ground and gasped.

"Lan, are you ok?" Mrs. Hikaru asked.

"Yes I'm ok! Help that scientist over there!" Lan said.

He got out of the car and saw something up with the streetlight signals. Aaron helped Rem up and saw Lan activate his PET.

".EXE, uplink now!" Lan said as he hooked into the small computer.

"I'm in… I sense high virus activity here." Megaman said.

"Attack them!" Lan said.

Megaman ran into battle and he saw a strange looking Net Navi. Some virus programs were with it and Megaman got ready.

"Our job isn't done yet. Get ready…" the Navi said.

Megaman opened fire at the first virus and it was deleted. The Navi backed up and two Viruses attacked. Megaman dodged an attack and the second virus came at him. Lan loaded in his scatter shot chip. Megaman's gun changed and he blew away the virus. The Navi and three other viruses were bunched together. Megaman opened fire on them and deleted the viruses. The Navi escaped and Megaman blasted away the last virus.

"The area is clear. No more virus activity detected. Now jacking out." Megaman said.

An ambulance pulled in and the traffic was delayed. The doctors pulled a glass shard from Lan's leg and gave him a blanket. He was starting to feel cold from being in shock. The car accident was partially holding him back from fighting. He breathed through a small machine and Aaron joined the EMT's. They dove to the hospital and Aaron felt his pocket. He had lost the disk in the accident. The only copy left was on his computer. Rem was in critical condition and she had a huge bruise on her chest from the pole. Her heart rate was going down and the doctor put on his mask.

"Were losing her. We have a Hypo Cardiac Tamptinade. I don't think that it's her ribs. Stormy, get us to the hospital!" the doctor said.

"I'm on it. The hospital is a good 15 minutes away! I don't think she'll make it!!!" Stormy yelled.

"That's not good!!! Help her!" Aaron exclaimed.

The doctor sighed and he saw Rem's vital signs start to go down. He took her shirt off and pulled out a syringe.

"Ok, you keep the girl steady. Stormy, try and keep this car steady!" the doctor said.

Aaron watched the doctor stick the syringe into Rem's chest. The doctor tried to breath easily and began to drain blood from the bruise.

"Keep her steady… This operation has barely been performed at high speed. I'm going to try and drain a little of this bruised blood. It should help her." The doctor said.

Rem felt the pain and she began to shake. The doctor put a tube into the wound and some of the infected blood began to drain out. Rem was losing her vital signs and the doctor pulled out his shock pads.

"I'm not losing this one… Give me 200 volts. Clear!" the doctor said.

He sent a bolt of electricity through Rem and she shook. Aaron was silent and the doctor turned up the machine. Rem was on the verge of death and Aaron saw her flat line.

"NO! I'm not losing this one!!!" the doctor yelled.

Aaron stood back and the doctor rubbed the pads together. He held gave Rem one last shock and she began to move. Her heart rate came back and the doctor sighed in relief. Rem began to breathe again and Aaron sighed. The doctor patched up the wound and they arrived at the hospital. Mr. Hikaru was still wounded from the wreck. Lan arrived at the hospital with him and Aaron was in the lobby. He held up his Net Navi and the X.EXE program was nearly finished. Lan took a seat and he waited for the doctors to tell him the condition of his dad. Aaron sat next to him and tried to calm him down a bit.

"I see you're into Net Navies." Aaron said.

"Yeah. I was a part of a Virus busting team just recently." Lan said.

"Oh, you must be Lan Hikaru. I heard about you before. Weren't you apart of that team against WWW? It was something like that."

"I had a good name for myself back at my old home. I've been using my Megaman.EXE Navi for a few years now. Do you have a Navi?"

"Not yet, it still needs some more tweaking up. I've been working on it for a year now."

Lan talked on with him and the hospital computers were all getting strange messages. A virus had been infecting computers all over the city. The computers were all malfunctioning and Tericon computers were unaffected. They were more advanced compared to the computers already in use. The hospital security was placed under alert and they had to use their Net Navies. A virus had begun attacking the power system. The hospital security logged in and virus activity was immanent inside of the hospital. A Navi moved through the hospital electric system and a few viruses came at it.

"Cut Man, evade!" the security guard said.

Cut Man moved to the right and lifted his hand. He shot a blade at a virus and cut it in two. Another Navi came in and Cut Man turned to it. It was a tall Navi with a mask on. The mask had a happy face on one half, and a sad on the other. It had a type of jester cap on and hit's body was colored. Two blades emerged from its arms and the Navi slashed Cut man into 4 pieces. The Navi was Clown Man. Lan saw the security guards fail and Aaron wasn't going to let the electricity fail. He turned to Lan and activated his PET.

"Lan, do you some extra chips I can borrow for now?" Aaron asked.

"Yeah, here you go." Lan said as he handed Aaron 4 chips.

Aaron ran towards a hospital computer and uploaded X. Lan went to another computer and uploaded Megaman. Aaron made X search the area for viruses. Megaman looked ahead and saw X alone.

"That's a new Navi…" Megaman said.

A few viruses ambushed X and Megaman saw the main control for electricity. A few viruses were blocking the way and the battle began for them both. X took a hit from a virus and he fired after getting hit. A virus took in a few shots and started to regenerate. Megaman backed away from the viruses and charged up his gun. X was incomplete at this level and Aaron activated the attack bonus chip. The viruses advanced and X fired at one. It took in a few shots and was deleted. X was not aware of the virus coming up from behind him.

"X, evade! He's right behind you!!!" Aaron yelled.

X smiled and he did a back flip over the virus. His gun was charging up and Megaman blew away a virus with his charged shot. X hit the ground and he fired hi charge shot. It deleted half of the viruses attacking him.

"Aaron, I'm going to need you to upload a better weapon! I'm starting to enjoy this!!!" X exclaimed.

Aaron looked at his chips and he only saw Scatter shot, Guts Man V1, and a simple Navi plus.

"Hold on…" Aaron said.

He put in the Guts Man chip and then he inserted the Navi Plus next to it. X avoided a shot and he fired at a virus. Megaman fired a cross bomb at the viruses and destroyed them. X got the word that the chip was loaded.

He backed up and Guts Man appeared. The viruses went in and Guts Man slammed his fists into the ground. He crushed a virus and the floor below it broke. X jumped over Guts Man and fired a scatter shot into the virus crowd. The viruses were deleted X landed. Megaman fired a shot at X and the buster round hit a Virus behind X.

"You should be careful when Virus busting. I haven't seen a Navi that could dodge like that." Megaman said.

"I'm new! My design has been made to withstand heavy attacks and avoid most attacks." X said.

"Your design is just like mine!"

They scanned for more viruses and Megaman activated the power. X looked up and a bunch of balls shot in. Megaman avoided it and X backed away. The balls collided and formed Clown Man.

"You've gone far enough." Clown man said.


	2. ERROR

**Chapter 2**

"**ERROR"**

Clown Man stayed in his battle position and X looked at him. The fight was not going to be easy for him. He was missing his helmet and his chest armor wasn't fully completed. Other than that, Aaron didn't have many chips. Guts Man was still active and Clown Man lifted his hands.

"You can't stop us. It is Inevitable." Said Clown mad as the floor began to change.

"Ha! We'll just have to find out!!!" yelled X as he fired a Charged shot at Clown Man.

The attack hit Clown Man and damaged him. X jumped to the side and Guts man ran in. Clown Man was stunned from the shot and Guts man lifted his fists. He slammed his fists down and Clown Man looked at him. His body slowly turned into a group of balls. Guts man hit the ground and Clown Man's body moved away. The balls came together and Clown Man reformed.

"This doesn't look good… Hey," Aaron yelled to a nurse, "There's a kid named Lan in the other room. Tell him I need chips- bad!"

"Ok, hold on!" the nurse said.

Guts Man ran towards Clown man and swung at him. His attacks were limited because of his low level. Clown man ducked under his arm and Guts Man came back around. His arm hit Clown Man and knocked him back. The Nurse ran to Lan and asked him for the chips. Lan gave her a few and she ran towards Aaron.

"Here you go, this is all he could spare!" the nurse said.

Aaron grabbed them and pulled out a Guts Man V3. He took out the Navi plus chip and inserted the V3 chip. Guts Man began to glow and his body turned into a translucent blue color. He came out as a level 3 Guts Man. Clown Man extended a sword and Guts Man ran towards him. He pulled up his arms and brought them down. A huge wave of energy shot out of the ground and Clown Man turned into the field of balls again. They moved away and the wave missed. It destroyed most of the field and Guts Man looked to his left. Clown Man appeared and Guts Man threw his fists forward. Megaman and X charged up and Clown Man ducked under Guts Man's fists. He brought his blade up cit Gut's Man's head in two. Guts Man was deleted and Aaron tried to access the chip again. There was no file on it and Aaron tossed it to the ground.

"Lan's going to kill me…" Aaron said as he looked into the folder of chips.

Clown Man looked at Megaman and X. He saw X's shell go at him and he turned into a cloud of balls. When he reformed in a different area, Megaman was waiting for him. He fired his charged shot and Clown Man transformed again. X watched the filed go around and the balls reformed. An explosion triggered and Clown man fell back. Aaron and Lan loaded up the scatter shots. Megaman fired and Clown Man jumped to the left. X hit him with the scatter shot and they both were hammering away. Clown Man transformed to get away and X started to fire at the field of balls.

"X, watch out! He can still dodge you!" Megaman yelled.

"Don't worry, I can handle this one!" X replied as he ran in.

Lan watched X go in with a fury of attacks. He was searched for his chips and tried to get a proper one.

"X is powerful… But his cocky attitude will get him deleted!" said Lan as he picked up a chip.

The balls started to hit X rapidly. X backed up and Megaman ran towards the side.

"Back up!" Megaman yelled as he pulled out a small bomb.

X backed away and Megaman threw a cross bomb into Clown Man. The explosion damaged Clown Man and he came together. X backed away and he was damaged.

"Aaron, I need your help! See if there is a recovery chip…" said X as he held his arm.

Aaron searched through the folder and he found a saber attachment. He put it in his pocket and continued searching. Megaman tried to dodge Clown Man's blades. He ducked under the first swing and barely rolled to the right for the second. Clown Man slashed his chest and hit Megaman with his fist. The fist grew to large sizes and Megaman fell back. His energy was low and Lan saw that he was about to be deleted. Clown Man backed up and Megaman activated his saber. It was glowing red. Megaman slashed and a beam shot out. Clown Man jumped over it and the attack missed. He landed on a ball and held his arms out.

"I've never encountered a Net Navi this powerful!" Megaman said as his saber disappeared.

Aaron found the recovery chip and he loaded it up. X stood and recovered from all of the damage.

"It's not a perfect heal… But at least it's enough to take this Navi out!" said X as he ran towards Clown Man.

The huge beach ball that Clown Man was on fired out a missile. X moved to the right and he left a trail images behind him. Clown Man braced for impact and X held his blaster to his face. Before he could fire, Clown Man hit a firewall and entered another zone. X stopped and Megaman ran towards him. They looked at the firewall and Lan was confused.

"Lan, I'm heading in. I need some good chips ready." Megaman said.

"Ok, you head in after I load in this recovery chip. Aaron, are you ready to go?" asked Lan as he looked into his PET.

"Hey, I didn't know this thing had a video communications link… That would of helped earlier… Ok, but we need to make it quick unless more viruses try to attack while were in." Aaron replied as he pulled out a chip.

Gate Man showed up and he was ready to fight. Megaman looked at him and was surprised to see him.

"I heard about the hospital incident through a news site. I came in to make sure you were all safe." Gate Man said.

"Ok, we need you to defend that generator switch. The lives of a lot of people are counting on it now!" Megaman said.

X got ready and he followed Megaman into the zone. They were in a strange looking zone. It looked like a circus. Clown Man was well hidden here. He had the advantage…

"I can't pick up his signal." X said as he held his gun out.

Clown Man swooped down and Megaman fired at him. The shot missed and Clown man knocked them both back. Aaron loaded the sword chip and X lifted his hand. The sword rose from it and Clown Man was ready to fight. Megaman activated his sword and they attacked. Clown Man blocked both of their attacks and they came in again. He moved under X's sword and his upper torso turned into a field of balls. Megaman's sword missed and Clown Man came back together. He slashed at Megaman and his attack was blocked. X's sword was blocked and he spun around to hit him again. Clown Man blocked both of the swords and kicked Megaman back. Aaron loaded in a speed boost chip and X increased his speed. He started to slash at Clown Man without stopping. Clown Man blocked two of the slashes and transformed to dodge the other. He turned back and blocked the other slash. X jumped up just two feet and tried to strike his head. Clown Man blocked the attacks and tried to slash X.

He dodged and they went at it again. Clown Man tried his best to keep up with X. He transformed and flew up towards the top of a Farris wheel. Megaman got up and he followed X to the top of the Ferris wheel. Clown Man landed on top of it and X showed up. Megaman came in shortly after and Clown Man jumped up. He landed on his ball and came down.

"I need some explaining done. Why did you attack the hospital?" Megaman asked.

"Like you, I have a mission and I can't let you know. This world is going to be ours… So stay out of MY WAY!" screamed Clown Man as he kicked his ball at Megaman.

Megaman moved out of the way and the ball bounced off of structures. X prepared for a strike and he jumped off of the wheel. He landed on the axle for the Ferris wheel. Clown Man looked down and Megaman jumped off. X blasted the axel and the Ferris wheel rolled away. Clown Man saw the ball come at him and he was hit. The force knocked him off and X ran towards him. Aaron quickly loaded the area grab chip and used it on Clown Man. A field of backs surrounded Clown Man. He was unable to escape and X ran towards him.

"Game Over!" X said as he pulled back his sword.

He slashed Clown Man in two and deleted him. Megaman ran towards X and helped him up.

"Great job!" Megaman said.

"Thanks… That guy was no problem!" X said as he walked towards the edge of the firewall.

Lan and Aaron jacked out after making sure that the viruses were clear. Gate Man contacted Lan.

"I'll make sure that no viruses get through." Gate Man said.

"Ok, thanks for the help! Send me an e-mail if any Navies return." Said Lan before he turned off the PET.

Aaron looked at the area grab chip and he gave Lan back his Guts Man. Lan threw away the chip because it was now useless.

"Lan, I have to ask you a favor. This chip has traces of the virus that attacked us. Is it ok if I borrow it? I could probably use it to check the program for that virus. Maybe I can see what exactly that the virus was programmed to do. It could help us in the long run." Aaron said as he held up the chip.

"Ok, I have a few more at home. Send me an e-mail when you figured out what it is." Lan said as he walked towards his dad's room.

Aaron's parents pulled in and they wanted to make sure he was ok. Night fell and Rem was in critical condition due to the wreck. She had a machine help her breathe and Aaron sat next to her.

"I should have been more careful. We should have gone straight to school and maybe we could have survived." Aaron said as he ran his fingers through her hair.

As of now, he didn't care about the virus. It had all been removed from his thoughts and Rem was all he could think of. Mr. Hikaru had a broken arm from the accident. His wife and son were lucky to make it out safely. The scientist was in a coma and they had to remove his arm. Lan and Aaron left the rooms to go home and Mrs. Hikaru picked up her purse.

"See you later Aaron." Lan said as he walked out the door.

Aaron pulled out a cigarette and began to smoke. They went home and he made a pot of coffee. The last day of school was tomorrow and he was dedicated to finish the "X.EXE" program before more harm was done. He was on his mom's computer downstairs because it had a chip port in it. When the computer started up, he accessed the chip. The screen turned blue and white letter popped up.

"A Fatal Error has occurred in the following applications," read the screen.

Aaron saw a list of crashed programs and he activated X to attack the viruses. The viruses were contained in the chip and he saw that the virus protection had not been installed yet on his mom's computer.

"I can't finish the work on this one…" Aaron said.

He took the chip drive out of his mom's computer and installed it into his. X was ready to fight the virus in case of an outbreak.

"X, I'm going to run a quick virus scan." Aaron said.

"I'll be watching…" X said.

Aaron looked at the virus on the chip and it didn't read as a virus. It read as a normal program and didn't even alert the virus program. X saw that it was a virus. Strange enough the virus wasn't on the virus update list it was able to move through the computer without slowing down anything.

"X, can you pick up that virus?" Aaron asked.

"There's a virus here! Why?" X replied.

"I can't pick it up."

Aaron opened up the virus properties and it was all in binary code. He held his head and tried to read in its traces.

"The properties say that this virus is a year old. I can't figure out what its main programming is!" Aaron said.

X scanned it and he couldn't find anything. Aaron started to go deeper into its programming to find out where it's origins were from. He looked into a file and found a huge page written entirely in binary code. After searching through the file, he found a lone code at the bottom. It was small and he could decode it.

"Ok, that combination… F- it's F! That one's an I along with this one. Here's and R in two places. X, how's that virus maintaining on your end?" Aaron asked.

"It's not moving." X replied.

Aaron decoded the small group of number and it spelt out "FIREBIRD". He put down his PET and looked into it. What did it mean? Was it a password, program name? Was it the virus' name? I could have been an e-mail address. He had to find out…


	3. FIREBIRD

**Chapter 3**

"**FIREBIRD"**

Lan had sold his old computer to help his mom pay for the new model. His dad was doing better in the hospital and was going to come home in just 3 days. The new computer was hooked up where the old one was. Lan loaded all of his files from the old computer on to the new one. He checked to see what all was on it and a little popup appeared on the screen. It was an update reminder saying that in would be another 102 hours before the next update from Tericon industries. Aaron worked on X.EXE while he pulled up the search engines on the net. He had just added the Internet and a popup appeared on his computer.

"Update reminder! Next update in 101 hours." The computer said.

"Yeah, I get it… I'm going to set you to remind me tomorrow so I can get some work done!" Aaron said.

The word FIREBIRD came up on his search engine in over 30 different files. He opened up the first and it was part of a hacker site. The group of hackers tried to remain secret and Aaron laughed because his computer easily detected them. X was uploaded to search all of the computers for traces of the virus. After a 3-hour search, he couldn't find anything to even up to what he was looking for. Aaron continued to search and Lan decided to go see his dad at the hospital. The traffic was smooth, but the road was still blocked off from the wreck. The traffic lights in that area were still malfunctioning. The virus had a nagging of going into computer and eating up data. Something so deadly couldn't work by going computer to computer. Eventually it would run out of places to go. It had a nest in the international network, but they just had to find it. Destroying its roots would hopefully destroy the other viruses. The hospital security was tight and Gate Man still kept watch. The military seemed to have no trouble with this virus. Mr. Hikaru was in his bed watching TV and Lan walked in.

"Lan, how have you been?" Mr. Hikaru asked.

"Great! We were worried about you yesterday. A virus hit the hospital computers yesterday. Mom and I were really worried that the power would go out." Lan replied.

"Well, I'm ok right now! Were you hurt bad from the crash?"

"Not really, a piece of glass stuck in my leg and I was a little bruised. You hit your head really hard in the crash! You weren't doing to well."

Mr. Hikaru laughed after finding out how badly his injuries were compared to Lan's. They talked for a few minutes and the scientist was till under critical condition. He would only be able to use one arm since the wreck badly injured him.

The doctors constantly managed his condition and the computers that monitored him were still damaged. Aaron was at home still trying to find out about what FIREBIRD was. He came across news sites while searching. He looked at the headlines and there was something about a new car named the Firebird, the military computer upgrades, and a reported murder just 20 miles away from his house. He clicked on the reporter documentary for all 3 headlines.

"Honda just released the Firebird today. It is the first breed in a new line of cars. Sales plan to make above one billion. In other news, the military computers have just been upgraded to the New Tericon central processing units. Tericon has been supplying both residential and military with computers. The Tericon brand computers have sold over 3 million units in the past week. It has a series of updates still in line. Also the top story of today," the reporter said as she picked up her notes, "a murder was taken place today. 56-year-old Tericon employee Koji Tarawa was found dead in his home this morning. He was a main programmer with Tericon on the new units. His death is tragic because he will never be able to see his creation in action."

"Your creation can't read viruses if it depended on it. What I don't get is why the virus hasn't damaged my computer." Aaron said.

He had the new Tericon brand PC. Strange enough it seemed that the virus was hibernating inside of his computer. It didn't have the components to affect the computer or it was something more than that, something more sinister. He took a break and saved his progress. School was about to start and he wasn't going to bother trying to make a disk to work on X while he was on the go. It just pissed him off enough that the last one was lost in the wreck. He bummed a ride to school and he put a password lock on his computer so nobody could erase what he worked so hard on. X was ready to destroy the virus if it tried to beak out. The area grab chip kept it partially contained. In the mountain area, the FBI searched the scene. They found out that the murder weapon was a sniper rifle. The sniper was looking at him through the window in the living room.

"What have you got?" the cop asked.

"It was a smooth move to pull off. The sniper waited in that tree until the programmer awoke. He had to have had a suppressor to silence the round. Suppressors are commonly used for stealth OPS overseas. They stop all of the gunpowder and hot gasses from escaping out all at once. It will make barely any noise. " The FBI agent said.

The chief walked towards him and had his arms crossed. He was still unsatisfied by the answer.

"That may explain why the people on the trail may have not heard it. The people inside of the house had to have heard something." The chief said.

"There is a logical explanation. High-powered assault rifles are designed to make bullets shoot through nearly everything in its way. It would take a 3 foot steel wall to stop a bullet from a high-powered weapon such as this one. The only way to make a bullet stronger is to make it go faster. Normal bullets move fast, but they move at a speed slow enough for a bullet to shatter a glass window. High-powered assault rifles don't have that effect. They move fast enough to just barely crack a window. The whole family could have heard something as quiet as a small pop. When the programmer hit the ground, he had that couch to land on. That made it quiet and the sniper had enough time to unassembled the rifle and find a quiet escape route before anybody could have noticed." The FBI agent replied.

The cop looked out the window and saw a trail leading towards the city. It could have been a possible escape route for the sniper. That's why no cars were spotted. Lan was with his dad still and the doctor walked in.

"I'm sorry, but you are going to have to leave. We need to let our patient sleep." The doctor said.

"Ok… Hey, how's that scientist doing? Can I see him? I just wanted to see how he was doing. He got roughed up from that wreck." Lan said.

The doctor thought for a second and he thought that it wouldn't cause any harm. Lan and the doctor walked towards the scientist's room. Outside, a man in a camouflage suit was walked up towards the trail. He followed a trail leaving the mountain range. The FBI was searching the area and the military were also under the investigation. With a programmer from the system dead, it would be hazardous if a disaster happened at the industry. The man had a suitcase and he looked into a window. It was the scientist's room and he pulled out an unassembled sniper rifle. It was a powerful weapon and the man began to assemble it. He put on a suppressor at the end of the barrel. Lan saw that the scientist wasn't awake yet. He was still unconscious from the accident.

"When should he be waking up?" Lan asked.

"Hopefully soon!" the doctor said.

The man on the foothills put a clip in the chamber. It had 6 shots in the clip. Lan quickly linked up to the computers and made sure that no viruses were in them. The man aimed at the scientist and his knee sunk into the mud while he pulled the trigger. The bullet missed the scientist and blasted out the computer. Lan gasped and he looked out the window. The man groaned and the doctor pulled Lan to the ground. They heard two more bullets go through the window. It was quiet and the doctor started to push the scientist out of the room while trying to avoid fire. The sniper fired two shots and one hit the doctor. The scientist shrugged and the bullet missed him. Lan was terrified and the sniper pulled out the clip. He threw it into the woods and pulled out a 30 clip. Lan held his head and the sniper-opened fire.

The doctor pushed the scientist out of the room and a bullet hit his leg. Lan moved away and he took cover next to a wall. The bullets ripped through the wall over his left shoulder and he dragged the scientist away. A security guard grabbed his gun and walked to the window. He opened fire on the sniper and aimed for the puff of smoke. Lan checked to see if Megaman was all right. He was ok and the Sniper aimed at the security guard. He was ready to fire and a bullet blasted through his hand. He dropped the rifle and a bullet hit his leg. The security guard dropped his clip and pulled out a second. The sniper ran through the woods and he tried to stay low to avoid the bullets. Lan was ok and he heard a car driving away. The sniper made it out and the scientist had been his main target. He obviously tried to kill Lan and the doctor to leave no witnesses. He failed…

"Get another doctor in here!" the nurse yelled.

The doctor that was hit fell to the ground and he could barely move. Lan checked to see if his dad was ok and he was luckily. The sniper had escaped from the authorities and the schools were closed. The cops were all over the city searching and the children had been barred indoors. Aaron ran home and he sat at the computer. He grabbed a cigarette and his lighter. The computer turned on at the movement of the mouse and Aaron typed in his password. He pulled out his ashtray and then he picked up where he left off. The news site was still open and the hospital shooting hit world news in just a matter of hours. He saw the news about the shooting and then he saw where it took place. The headlines said that a programmer from Tericon was nearly shot dead along with a doctor and Lan. Aaron read more into the story and he saw that the sniper was on the foothills. It was only 4 miles from where the first programmer was killed.

"Why was that sniper after those programmers? X, be ready for a virus attack, I'm going to look deeper into this." Aaron said.

"Got it!" X said.

He looked into the programmers' story and they said that both scientists along with a few others were working on the new Tericon computers. An update for the site came up revealing the answering machine message that was sent to the dead programmer. Aaron played the message and listened in.

"What you are about to hear is the last message on the answering machine. The message is from the same scientist that was nearly killed at the hospital today. The police refuse to give away the name of the scientist…" the reporter said before a loud beep was heard, "Hey Koji, I need your help. Something big has come up. There's something I need to talk to you about. Meet me at Tericon at 8:00 am. I know it's early, but I need to talk to you."

Aaron listened and the reporter said that the scientist was trying to warn Koji that a hit man was after them.

"Something like that isn't something you would discuss in the open. It has something to do with the virus I bet… X, try and find info on the programmers of the new Tericon central processing unit. It may involve hacking to Tericon communications." Aaron said.

X tried to access Tericon, but the firewalls were blocking off all data access from outside. The only way he could have gotten access was to break in and jack into an inside computer. X ignored the firewall and went to get the info somewhere else. After half an hour of searching, Aaron gave up.

"X.EXE, jack out!" Aaron said.

X jacked out and Aaron began to work on him from inside his computer. He sent Lan an E-mail and X was nearly finished. Lan was brushing his teeth and he was still sort of traumatized from nearly getting shot. When he checked his e-mail, he saw the letter from Aaron. It read:

"Lan, it's Aaron. I need your help. Meet me at my house in one hour. I need you to use Megaman and help me get to the bottom of this virus."

Lan washed his mouth out and Mrs. Hikaru tried to get him to sleep. She tucked him in and tried to sleep. Lan pretended to sleep and he got up. He got dressed and grabbed his PET. The pillows on his bed were arranged to make it look like there was somebody there. Aaron waited near a dumpster and he saw Lan.

"Lan, you showed up. That's good! Let's find an area that's not in the open." Aaron said.

"Got it!" Lan said.

They snuck out into the woods and Aaron lifted his PET up. He had video surveillance photos of the entire Tericon complex.

"It sounds crazy, but I believe that this virus and those shooting are connected. Were going to break into Tericon and try to access the computers from inside!" Aaron said.

"Are you crazy? That place is one of the biggest computer companies since Microsoft! If they thought we were trying to do something they would shoot us dead!!!" Lan yelled.

Aaron covered Lan's mouth and stayed low to make sure that nobody was listening. He looked back at Lan and was angry now.

"This is important! I learned that the virus that's been attacking wont hurt these new computers. Other than that, a programmer is dead and the second one was almost killed this morning. The virus must have some connection with these computers. I have to get inside and see exactly what's going on." Aaron said.

"I see your point, but this isn't going to be easy." Lan said.

"I never said it would…"

They got ready and walked towards Tericon industries. The building was quiet at this hour and the guards were about to have a shift change. Lan tried to stay low so the guard at the gate wouldn't see him. Aaron saw the security cameras and they would be a threat in this operation. The security cameras were covering everything the guards didn't. Lan backed up and he jacked into the power box located outside. The power was turned off, but it would only be for just a few seconds. Lan and Aaron ran under a security camera and they went back online. A guard saw the screen flicker and he scratched his head.

"What was that?" the guard asked.

Aaron peeked his head around the corner and a guard clocked out. Lan ran towards a switchboard and Aaron followed. Megaman and X jacked in and they found the main control from the security cameras on the east wall. Guards watching the screens saw a majority of the screens go out. They called maintenance and Aaron snuck around. Lan took out the sound alarms and the lasers blocking the windows. Aaron saw that the guards were on the way to clock in. He pulled back his fist and smashed open the window. A few guards were told to go check out the east wing. Aaron and Lan slipped in through the window and walked onward. There was a room of computers that were shutdown. It was the same room that most of the daytime programmers worked on the new updates. Lan and Aaron jacked in to find info on the programmers' journals to find out who was involved and what they were dealing with. Lan found a file that was hidden deep in the computers data bank network. It belonged to Koji Tarawa. The file was at least a year old.

"Lan, we have company! That virus is swarming around this computer network." Megaman said.

X saw that they were coming from the Central computer at the heart of the building. It had the hibernation grounds for a virus. X went in and there was a strange Navi there. The viruses created a dark aura around it. X opened fire on it and the shot were absorbed into it. The Navi awoke and a guard was outside the door with his gun out. Lan heard him and X was hit by the Navi. He was knocked out and Aaron had to jack out. He had all the data he needed and the guard opened the door.


	4. DANGER

"**DANGER"**

Aaron saw the guard and he hid under a desk with Lan. The guard shined the light at the window and was alarmed. He picked up his radio and held out his gun.

"We have an intruder. Exercise full caution!" the guard said as he backed out of the doorway.

Lan and Aaron quickly jumped out the window and ran away from Tericon. The guards were all over the place and they took the back roads to get home. Lan shook Aaron's hand and went to bed. Aaron went inside and he uploaded what data he had on the computer. There was a file about all of the process of creating the new Tericon computer. He clicked on it and read for a few hours. It didn't quite solve his problems. There was still a virus loose and no explanation on how it got there. He searched through the files on his PET and found a list of the programmers. It had a password protection and Aaron started to search through his program case for a hacking program. He had once been into the hacking business, but it was too much trouble. Morning came and Aaron was still working. His update reminder popped up to remind him.

"77 hours until the next update." The computer said.

"Don't ever remind me again." Aaron said as he set the reminder to never remind him.

On Monday morning at 12' noon Tericon would begin its update. It would not be good if the virus were in the main computer. There was more behind it. He found the disk and inserted it into the computer. The program loaded up and Aaron decided to sleep. It would take a few hours before the disk had found out the password. Lan woke up and the cops were all over the neighborhood. His mom was cooking breakfast and she wasn't going to let him leave the house. The assassination attempt at the hospital had scared her half to death. Lan tried to get a hold of the outside world and Aaron was asleep. The time passed on and it was in the mid afternoon. 68 hours were left and Aaron woke up. The password had been found and he entered it into the file. A list of the programmers was up and he had everything to know. They're address', their phone number, age, origin, and date of birth, everything that a normal assassin would need to know. The list showed who was with the program and who was cut out.

"This is it…" Aaron said.

There were 5 programmers to begin with. The first one on the list was the second oldest. When Aaron checked his name, he had apparently died just 1 week before the new computer hit the market. The second programmer was real young. He had been in the Marines and received Rifle training. He was given a dishonorable discharge. After getting thrown out, he went to a technical college and learned how to program.

That gave him the freedom to join Tericon's new project. The third was Koji Tarawa. He had been shot to death as announced on the news. The fourth was given a condo due to the sales. He and Koji were the smartest programmers. The last programmer was the one who was hit by the car. He was the oldest and was the lead designer for the entire project. Aaron found something bigger in the operation… The fourth programmer walked around in his condo. His computer activated the house and he smiled.

"Welcome home Jiro." The computer said.

Jiro smiled and he walked towards the fridge. It was on and he opened it. A small hand held device was on the fridge. He picked it up and heard a laugh.

"If you have a brain in your head, you wouldn't move your feet or drop that device." The young man said.

He had a gun held to Jiro's back and Jiro was scared. Jiro was shaking in fear and the young man laughed.

"That device has my Navi Grenade Man programmed in. Letting that button go will set him off. And this entire house will blow up. You have too much to worry about." The young man said.

"It's no wonder you were thrown off of the project. You and Dickerson were just trouble. Having a Navi run a system isn't a good idea." Jiro replied in fear

"In 67 hours it won't matter. I hope you remembered your PET to bust this one…"

The young man looked at the PET that was lying on the table. He blasted it and the PET was out of commission. Next, he turned on the sink and it was a matter of time before the water reached Jiro's feet. Jiro gasped and the young man walked towards the door.

"Good luck, because there is no way to bust this thing without getting through Grenade Man. The clock is ticking and you can't prevent the disaster. The other programmer is in the hospital and he won't be getting up anytime soon. Right now I'm sure you and me are the only people who can stop the update. So you can say that you're the only thing in my way." The young man said.

Jiro screamed and the young man walked off. He had a harness for his arm since he got shot. Aaron searched into the file and he went deeper. There was more behind it and the truth was always shocking. The first and second programmers made a Navi and a program that ate all other programs called Firebird. It would make all other computers without the upgrade useless. The first programmer died and the second was the only surviving one besides Koji who knew about the virus. The second programmer was thrown off along with the first one and the rest finished it.

The fifth programmer knew what was up from the story. The meeting in the park was about the virus. The fourth had a small background about it and Aaron didn't stop there. The second programmer had kept research going even after being thrown off. His research was destroyed.

"I get it, when they destroyed the virus on his computer, he had not updated it enough to affect the new models. So I guess that this project has been going on for a year and that's when they took it out. So right now a virus is in the main computer at Tericon! I got it! That Navi is going to update itself during the next update so it can affect the new computers. So right now the fourth programmer is the only one who can help. There's got to be more to the murders of the programmers. The first had died of a heart attack. The next one was nearly killed in the wreck and then Koji was killed. Those programmers knew how to stop the virus. So I guess it has to be the young one trying to kill the others so his virus can't be stopped!!!" Aaron exclaimed as he jumped out of the chair.

Aaron stopped and tried to find out where the fourth programmer lived. He took his mom's keys and drove down the road. Lan was out in his front yard and he pulled in.

"Lan, I need your help right now!" Aaron said.

"Why?" Lan asked.

"I need to find the fourth programmer and you may be needed to help get rid of the road block in front of the condo."

Lan hopped in and they drove towards the condo. The young man drove past them and they didn't notice. The condo gate was blasted open and Lan saw that there was no need to jack in. The condo was silent and Jiro looked outside.

"HELP ME! SOMEBODY PLEASE!!!" Jiro screamed.

Aaron ran inside and he saw that the programmer was standing still. Lan followed behind him and they saw Jiro.

"Don't come any closer, you might upset my balance. I won't be able to move without triggering the bomb. There is one way to stop it and that is to jack in and take out the Navi inside of this bomb!" Jiro exclaimed.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Lan asked.

"The bomb is beneath this part of the floor. You have to hack into the security system outside of the house and take out Grenade Man yourself!" Jiro said as he tried not to stutter.

Aaron turned and Lan stopped. Neither one of them had chips to fight. Aaron turned around and he held his pocket.

"I don't have any battle chips! Do you have a set around here?" Aaron asked.

"Yes, there up on that shelf. I don't have a lot, I let my granddaughter borrow most of them." Jiro replied.

Aaron froze in fear and the only thing that went through his head was the fact that his granddaughter was probably waiting to see him. She would be broken if she got the news that her grandpa was blown to pieces. Aaron wasn't going to let him die, so he grabbed all the chips he could.

"If you guys haven't tagged on, you have to stop the update." Jiro said.

"I know the whole story. We broke into Tericon last night and I know everything about Firebird, the first two programmers. It's nothing new to me. Just remain calm and try not to move." Aaron said.

They found the security monitors outside and jacked in. X and Megaman arrived and there was a huge cyber field. Grenade Man could have been anywhere from the looks of it.

"Let's go!!!" X yelled as he dashed away.

Megaman followed him and there was a small gateway at on the floor. They went in and arrived in a huge maze like area. Jiro waited impatiently and he saw the water dripping out of the sink. A trail started to flood the floor. Jiro began to sweat and his body shook from standing in the same place and because of the fear. X looked around and he saw a gate access point.

"Megaman, I found it!!!" X yelled.

He entered the gate access point and Megaman ran towards it. The point closed in and Megaman couldn't get in.

"Lan, I can't get in!" Megaman said.

"Just try to find another way in!" said Lan as he handed Aaron the folder of chips.

X entered the area below Jiro. Grenade Man was waiting for him and he lifted his gun to him. He was bigger than X and his body had a camouflage design. Two huge guns rose from his arms and he stood. X held up his gun and Grenade Man opened fire. A grenade flew out and X moved to the right. The explosion merely grazed his arm and Grenade Man moved towards him. His reverse joint legs made a strange sound and X held his head.

"You failed to see how powerful I am!" Grenade Man yelled as he lifted his foot to stomp X.

His eyes flashed and X saw his foot come up. He rolled away and Grenade Man slammed his foot against the ground. A shock wave shot out and hit X. It knocked him back and X got up. Grenade Man ran towards him and X charged up his gun. He fired and Grenade Man took the shot in the face. His upper body shot back and X began to load up two chips. Grenade Man was bigger than X, and it would take a lot more power to take him down. Megaman was lost and Jiro started to shake even more. The water started to move closer to his feet. X activated the two chips and Grenade Man fired at him. He hit X and watched his body fly apart.

"Stupid Navi!!! Did you really think you could get past me?" Grenade Man asked.

X came in from above and Grenade Man gasped. His beam sword had been activated and X kicked Grenade Man in the head. He spun around and slashed his chest open. X hit the ground and Grenade man was losing high amounts of energy. He backed up and X pulled back his beam sword.

"Flash Bomb!!!" Grenade Man yelled as he lifted his arm.

X saw a grenade hit the ground and a big white sphere shot out. The blast blinded X and Grenade Man rammed him. X took in the damage and he flew backwards. He slid across the ground on his back and then he flipped over. Grenade Man saw him try to move. Megaman looked around and he saw that a timer had been set for 3 minutes.

"Grenade Man has ideas! Lan, we only have 3 minutes!!!" Megaman yelled as he entered the gate access point.

Grenade Man pointed his gun at X and felt a blast from behind. Megaman was on the ground behind him and Grenade man turned around.

"How fun, more victims!!!" Grenade Man yelled as he opened fire.

Megaman used his shield and took in the blast. He was partially damaged and Grenade Man walked towards him. X got up and Aaron had no recovery chips. Megaman was surround with a bunch of numbers and Lan began punching in buttons.

"Megaman, style change now!" Lan exclaimed.

Megaman gained a red and black color to his design. He used the soul he earned from Clown Man. Grenade Man saw that two minutes were left and Megaman started to fire at him. The shots were useless to his tough armor. X charged up and he fired at Grenade Man's legs.

"I'm not done with you yet!!!" X yelled.

Grenade Man twisted around and fired 7 grenades. X saw them coming and he acted quickly. He did a flip to get in between the first three.

Megaman saw him produce multiple images from the speed. X landed and dodged the next two. He moved back and the sixth one missed his head. The seventh was moving too quickly and it slammed into X's chest. The blast caused him to lose nearly 90 of his energy. X was down on one knee trying to stay alive.

"You're the fastest Navi I have ever seen… To see that you survived that blast, I am just wondering how bad this one will hurt you!" Grenade Man said as he lifted his gun.

Megaman powered up his gun and he dematerialized. Aaron saw X's emergency defense system activate.

"I don't remember programming this… The Giga Attack?" Aaron said as X got up.

Grenade Man fired a huge grenade at X and Megaman appeared in front of X. He fired a whip of energy at the grenade and the blast shot the grenade back at Grenade Man. It struck Grenade Man in the eyes and he screamed. A black aura surrounded X and he jumped towards Grenade Man. Megaman backed away and X extended his limbs out. The black aura increased and engulfed Grenade Man. It immediately deleted Grenade Man and the area around him. X saw his soul try to escape and he absorbed it. The timer kept going and X fell to the ground. His energy was drained and Megaman helped him Jack out. Aaron looked inside and he walked towards the front door.

"I think it's over! We killed the Navi!" Aaron exclaimed.

Jiro sighed and he lifted his foot. Lan saw that the timer kept going and he gasped.

"NO!!!!" Lan screamed as Jiro moved.

The condo blew up and Aaron was sent flying across the lawn. Lan hit the ground and the young man saw the explosion from his rear view mirror. He smiled and drove home. Lan heard the cops coming and he tried to help Aaron up.

"Aaron, they're on the way here!!!" Lan yelled.

"Just go, I can't make it…" Aaron said.

Lan ran into the woods and Aaron tried to move. He looked up and saw the condo collapse.

"I won't stop, I won't let him get away with this!!!" Aaron yelled.

He tried to stand and his muscles were weakened. A helicopter flew over the area and Aaron fell down.

"This is sky copter 31, we need emergency assistance! We have an explosion at the programmer's condo. Send every unit available!!!" the man in the helicopter yelled.


	5. INFILTRATION

**-**Hi, this is my only author's note for now. I am going to send this chapter in and I won't be able to put in another update until January of 2005. This chapter and the next is a little bonus til then. I have to go to my dad's house and so far I can only update at school. I should be able to get in an update at least 2 weeks into January. I'm writing this chapter as an extra because right now, this story has been completed. Oh, about the character Lan. I only wanted to use him for this one story. About the reviewer about his surname "Hikari", I am just going by what the instruction booklet to Battle Network 4 about his name. This next to chapters may be a little bit more scary for young audiences (that's why its PG-3) so be a little careful if you have some doubts. I don''t mean scary like "AH! The devils going to everybody like from the X-Files." I mean a little more like the shootout from chapter 3. So some of it may be disturbing… I guess I should just zip it and type. Enjoy! And thanks for all the reviewers so far.

"**INFILTRATION"**

Lan made his getaway from the exploding condo with police helicopters flying overhead. He hit the ground like a log and hid in the bushes. A helicopter flew over him trying to find people. It was a dangerous job… He was the mouse, the choppers were the eagles waiting to catch him. If they got a hold of him, the entire plan would fail. The computers on the update will be overtaken by the virus in the center of the Main Computer would upload across North America and Japan. It was a race against Armageddon as it would be put.

"Oh man! What has this world come to?" Lan asked himself.

The police found Aaron on the ground and they looked at him. Aaron opened his eyes and he looked at the fat cop in front of him.

"I think we found our man." The fat cop said.

"Let's get him to where he should be…" the second cop said.

They activated a tazor and shocked Aaron. He was out and in a coma now. Lan took off towards the city and he fell down a small slope. He clenched his teeth after hitting the ground. There was a gash on his arm and his clothes were covered with dirt. The main road was covered with cops driving by. Lan waited until they passed and he ran across the road. He made it home and only 66 hours were left.

"Lan! Where were you? You're a mess! I told you not to leave the house." Mrs. Hikaru said.

"I know, but I was bored! I had fun today." Lan said while trying to not blabber out what happened.

"Well, that's a good idea… But when we have a guy shooting people from the hill tops, I'm saying it's bad… Well… I guess I should go easy on you… You're about to be in the seventh grade. I used to be the same. Your father and I would go see concerts and lots of fun stuff when we were told not to. I'll let you slide for now. Go ahead and take a bath and I'll get you some new clothes."

Lan walked upstairs and he kept Megaman with him. He had to think of a plan on how to stop the update. From how he saw it now, they had no plan on getting in again. There was a mini TV on a shelf across from the bathroom and a news report turned on.

"Today, the new Tericon computers have skyrocketed in sales. The rival company 'Roebuck Corporation' has declined in sales. I am live at Tericon industries where the tours lines are opening. With me is Marcus Tericon. He names the industry after himself and has broken the 500 Billion-Dollar markers in marketing. What do you have to say?" the reporter asked.

"I have never been more happier in my life! I remember playing with the old Dell computers as a child and now I have made ones that can out work them in every way. I thank my Executive Nancy for all the hard times. Upon all this, I just proposed and she has agreed to marry me after all the updates are complete." Marcus said.

"That's great news! I hope I'm invited! But in other news, some hysteria has started with all of the programmers dying in accidents."

"That one is still being investigated. If it is by anyway related with Roebuck Corporation, we will take them down. Inside, this massive computer will make the computers run faster than before. They don't stand a chance."

Lan thought for a second and he knew how he was going to get in. He cleaned up and got dressed. While his mom sat on the couch, he had to ask her a favor.

"Mom, I want to go see the tour at Tericon!" Lan exclaimed.

"So soon?" Mrs. Hikaru asked.

"Please!!! I wanted to see it before the updates so I can have something to look forward to! Please!!! Can I go?"

"Alright… I have to get cleaned up and finish cleaning the rest of this house."

"Thanks!"

Lan ran up to his room and grabbed his coat. He pulled a hobby knife out of his desk and cut a hole in the coat. There was a small plastic video camera on the desk and he gave it new batteries.

He placed the video camera inside the coat and cut a hole on the inside so he could take a picture. 63 hours were left until the update and his mom got in the car. Lan buckled up and took a deep breath. They drove towards Tericon and not too many people were in line. Lan and Mrs. Hikaru stood in line and a group was meeting across the road. A few kids were stitching together a trench coat for a man. They stitched bombs in it with a type of material that made it undetectable by the metal detectors. The man put it on and he handed the kids money.

"Nobody is putting my boss out of business!" the man exclaimed.

He was an executive for Roebuck Corporation. Lan looked around and he saw the man get in line. They all stepped past the metal detectors and they examined all the metal inside their clothes. It was a machine that shaped out the objects with red lights. Lan was held up and they were picking up the metal buttons on his coat. His mom and the man got by and there was a little monorail inside the building.

"I bet this cost over a Billion." Lan said.

They all got on the monorail and it began to move. The tour guide stood up and she smiled at the crowd.

"Welcome! I hope you all have had an easy time today." The tour guide said.

Some people laughed and Lan looked around. He had a bad time before the tour. They drove past a large office room and Lan took a picture.

"This is where the programmers are working on the updates. It is a hard job to do especially with all of the sales being made. Our security has been improved due to thefts and hackers." The tour guide said.

"Excuse me, but has there been viruses inside the system? All of the computers around town are being infected but the new ones. Is it possible that they are not detecting them?" the woman up front asked.

"Our virus protection software can spot out every computer virus known to human. Nothing has slipped by." The woman said.

"So are the virus scans constant?" Lan asked.

"There are 2 scans performed every hour. With a huge system like this, it is needed." The tour guide replied.

She wanted them to ask questions at the end of the tour so they could end this faster. Above them was a huge web loaded with wires and they blinked different colors.

"Above us is one of the 800 information webs in this building. People have wondered what happened to fiber optics. This new material is more abundant and powerful. The new material can send an entire library worth of information around the world 19 times in just a second. Responses are faster now and that's the many reasons why the military is relying on these computers now. The material it uses is just as powerful as fiber optic wiring. Now if we continue through here, this is the second office working. Now if you're afraid of heights, be warned! We are heading into the upper area." The tour guide said.

The man in the back was impatient and he looked around. As they went along, Marcus worked at his desk filling out paperwork. Nancy walked in and smiled.

"Hello Nancy! How have you been?" Marcus asked.

"Great! I was wondering I you could sign this." Nancy replied.

"Our Virus busting folder? I see… Here's a signature. I hope everything is going well up at research and development."

"It is! We are going work on this busting team and hopefully have it up in two months at the most. Oh, Doppler called again. He was wondering if you had time to go over his new idea."

"I'll get back to him later. Who is in charge at engineering?"

"Dr. Gate…"

"Tell him I need those progress reports."

"Yes sir!"

Nancy left and Marcus told her to call him by his first name from now on. The tour downstairs was nearly done. 61 hours were left until the update. The tour guide pointed at the main computer. It was a massive pillar that ran the entire system. The man in the back smiled and he jumped off of the train.

"OK! Nobody move!!!" the man yelled.

"What are you doing?" the security guard asked.

The man tackled the guard and took his gun. He blasted him with a few shots and took the clips.

"I'm tired of this computer! Tericon is going down today!!!" the man screamed.

He pulled out the small bombs and threw them at the walls of the computer. Lan was scared and he ran as far away with the crowd.

"Fool! You're going to destroy half of the entire world's technologies! We'll be reduced back to the Information age!!!" the scientist yelled.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take!" the man said as he hit the button.

Explosions ruptured from the computer and knocked the man across the room. A wall of smoke shot through the building and the man looked back at the computer. He gasped after seeing that it wasn't damaged. Lan was scared because that didn't stop the computer.

"You think that we were going to make a computer that was that vulnerable? This machine has an armored shell that can survive earthquakes, fires past 6000 degrees Celsius, and explosions. A nuke is the only thing that can destroy it. You actually thought that a little bomb could take it out? If we knew that this was what you were planning, we would of let you have a shot at it…" Nancy said.

The man lifted the gun to his head and fired. The crowd was horrified and Mrs. Hikaru took Lan home. The people were offered free computers with extra games due to the inconvenience. Lan now had his data. Marcus and Nancy were a center of power for the end of the world. Aaron was in the hospital still and he wasn't going to be out for long. It was nightmarish that Tericon had one of the most deadly viruses inside their system without knowing. The next day came and Tericon was ready for the updates to commence. 37 hours were left…


	6. TERICON

"**TERICON"**

A group of tourists were on a monorail seeing the entire internal systems of Tericon communication industries. The tour guide held up her microphone and pointed to the left. There was a giant glass window with a pillar nearly 1/4th the size of the building.

"On your right, you can see the main computer from Tericon communication industry. With the next system update in 16 hours, the system will be faster. I hope everybody here has bought one. Now if you open your envelopes we gave you, there is a 300 dollar discount on the down payments for our new Tericon computers!" the tour guide exclaimed.

Some of the crowd cheered and the system's computers were running normally. They were unaware of the Navi inside waiting to get updated along with the virus. At the hospital, Rem was awake and she saw the nurse walk in.

"Good morning, I see that you're doing better!" the nurse said as she put Rem's plate in her lap.

Aaron opened his eyes and he was bruised from the explosion. Tomorrow was the day of the update and he sat up. The IV Bag was in him still and he ripped it out. A bunch of wires were monitoring his movement and he ripped them out. His PET was across the counter in the lobby. There was no way he could have gotten in there without being spotted. A guard was walking through the hall and he ran into a utility closet. The guard walked through the hallway and saw the opened utility closet. Aaron pulled him in and beat the guard upside the head with a wrench. He took the guards clothes and put them on. The woman working at the counter was talking to a doctor. Aaron grabbed his PET and the doctor looked at him.

"What are you doing?" the doctor asked.

Aaron pulled out his gun and held it to the doctor's face. The doctor held his hands up and Aaron grasped the trigger.

"Now I'm going to walk out that door! If a cop follows me home… So help me GOD I WILL GET YOU ALL BACK!" Aaron screamed.

Rem heard his voice and Aaron ran out the door. He took the keys to a car and drove home. His parents were out shopping and he didn't have long. The answering machine inside of his house went off and a message was played.

"We don't have long to talk, but your son has broken out and he is on the run." The doctor said.

Aaron deleted the message and got data from off of his computer. He got in his car and drove down the road to Lan's house. Lan answered the door and Mr. Hikaru had come home.

"Aaron! How did you get out?" Lan asked.

"No time to talk, we need to examine this data!" Aaron said.

They snuck upstairs and Aaron continued to examine the data. He found out what was deeper in the virus programming. The virus had been programmed to target every programmer but number 2. The accident had been planned out…

"I now understand what was up with that virus. It attacked the police computers that morning so they couldn't intervene with the high-speed pursuit. The surveillance cameras saw me help the fifth programmer out and it screwed up the traffic lights allowing that car to slam into my moped. The virus didn't do well enough so we would be killed." Aaron said.

"I now understand what this is all about. There's a problem, the next update is 15 hours away. I was lucky enough to get these pictures from inside for a break in!" Lan said.

"We have 15 hours, so now we just need to get some sleep. We'll head out early! Sleep is all we need right now. Just pretend we don't have to do anything tomorrow and you should get to sleep early."

Aaron camped out in a sleeping bag on the floor and Lan tried to sleep. He couldn't sleep and his mom was still awake. The update was 13 hours away and Lan got up. He walked to the kitchen to take a sleeping pill. His mom saw him and she had a cup of coffee.

"Lan, are you still awake?" Mrs. Hikaru asked.

"Yes… I'm still awake." Lan said.

"Just wondering… Something has been bugging me lately… Goodnight honey."

Lan went to sleep and he tried to sleep easily. The young man who had been causing everything to go downhill was still awake. He had cuts on his arm and his mind had gone into the brink of insanity. The gun on his counter was loaded and he began to put on his tie.

"Tomorrow is going to be one big day!" the young man said.

He looked at the pictures of his family on the wall and shot one. The picture fell and shattered on the floor.

"So what do you have to say now? Mom, dad, Jane, and the kids… You can't laugh at me anymore!!! Tomorrow this entire world is mine…" the young man said.

He began to laugh and then he fell into a wall. At Tericon, the president of the entire industry, Marcus, was at his desk enjoying a nice whiskey.

"Nancy, have you got in the report on the virus scan?" Marcus asked.

"Yes! Nothing was detected in the scan. The military wanted to know the same." Nancy said.

"Good, this next update could mean the difference between future updates and the fall of our company. If the update fails, a bunch of angry people will be switching back over to the old brands."

They both finished up work at the office and clocked out. The night was silent and morning came. Aaron woke up and it was 10:47 am. Lan woke up shortly after and they got dressed.

"Ok, this is the big day… We can't fail anything." Aaron said.

He turned the safety off on his gun and put on the security guard outfit. Lan got dressed and wore the usual. They snuck out back and got into the car. Rem was up and she was ready to go. The doctors gave her new clothes and she walked towards the reception office. The fifth programmer started to scream and he woke up. Rem walked towards him and the fifth programmer looked around.

"What day is it?" the fifth programmer asked.

"Monday… It's about 11:20 am, why?" Rem asked.

The fifth programmer couldn't move his legs and he held his head. Rem was confused and he looked at her.

"You can't let Tericon continue the update! Since I can't do it, you have to. You need to go to Tericon and shutdown the main computer! If you fail to shut it down, something inside of it will wipe out everything technological! Were talking about the end of the world!!!" the fifth programmer yelled.

He gave Rem a keycard and told her that a pattern of buttons would have to be inserted into the computer to shut it down. _Green- Blue- Red._ That was the pattern and Rem was confused. She saws a televised broadcast and Aaron was on the screen with Lan. They were in the back leaving a car. She took off running for Tericon and it was a 50-minute walk at least. Running would be faster and she would probably have a chance. Stopping wouldn't good, because it was early morning. Nobody would be able to give her a ride. They had work, so she had no choice but to run.

Her parents were driving towards the hospital and they just barely missed her. Lan and Aaron walked into the building and they found a back door entrance. Marcus and Nancy walked through the building making sure everything was going according to plan. They took a walk down the corner and the young man was waiting for them with a gun. The security cameras were not up linked yet due to the update. Marcus and Nancy gasped to the sight. The young man smiled and signaled for them to keep walking.

"I thought you were kicked out? I was the one who gave that order." Nancy said.

"I was! Right now it doesn't matter. Marcus, old friend, where's that keycard at?" the young man asked.

"Right here… Just don't hurt us." Marcus said as he handed the young man his card.

The young man threw it on the ground and fired at the card. He destroyed it and the suppressor on his gun didn't alarm anybody. They continued to walk and Aaron was inside.

"Lan, I don't think this will be easy… Just do as we planned…" Aaron said.

They walked through the corridor and a guard stopped them. He looked at Lan and folded his arms.

"No civilians are allowed past this point." The guard said.

"But this kid has to go!" Aaron said.

"Please, let me through! I'm about to burst!!!" Lan cried.

The guard stopped them from getting any further and Aaron looked to his left. He stared at the fire extinguisher and then at the guard.

"I can't allow you to continue. What's your purpose for being here? The update is…" the guard said before Aaron picked up the fire extinguisher.

He slammed it into the guard's head and then he took his keys. Lan followed Aaron and they found a sign on the wall pointing to where everything was. They went to the main computer and the clock kept ticking. It was 11:35. Aaron found the main computer and it was huge. The computer was heavily armored. It could possibly survive the ice age if possible. They both jacked in and had to get this over with before it all ended. The virus had taken over everything in the entire system without being detected. No matter how hard it tried, it couldn't do anything to the computer. X lifted his gun and started blowing up every virus in his path. Another Navi was showing up and it was Gate Man.

"Gate Man, you showed up!" Megaman said.

"I was starting to get on to this too. The firewalls are weak due to the updates. We need to find the source of this virus now!" Gate Man exclaimed.

"Let's go!" X said as he dashed towards the gate access point.

They got inside and destroying the head Navi would leave it impossible for the virus to adapt. The new updates would be able to zap everything inside. Aaron and Lan were paranoid about what was going to happen. The young man was still holding them up. X landed in the new zone and Megaman followed him down. Gate Man came in last and they looked ahead at the Navi.

"It's all just my underlings." The Navi said.

It levitated to the top and held out a small disk object. He pulled out another and did some quick strikes at nothing. X examined his attacks and the Navi got in a pose. 3 blades extended from the two objects and revealed the Navi.

"I am Tengu Man! This world will be cleared for an entire digital civilization. Navi's will be promised to move freely through our world and the human world when I learn how to destroy this computer when the update hits. Just stay out of my way!!!" Tengu Man yelled.

Two tornadoes formed and blew towards them. X dodged it and opened fire on Tengu Man. The shells did nothing and he had to use a style change. He used Grenade Man's soul and Megaman used Clown Man's soul to dodge the attack. Gate Man backed away and X fired a grenade at Tengu Man. The attack hit and Tengu Man fell towards the ground. Megaman struck him with his whip and X hit Tengu Man with a kick when he hit the ground. Tengu Man caught his balance and went into flight mode. He flew at X with his machine guns firing. X dashed at Tengu Man and he uploaded his beam sword. He clashed and they came out with their melee attacks out. Both warriors were damaged and Megaman charged up his gun. He fired a whip at Tengu Man. The attack missed and Tengu Man came at Megaman. X turned around and Tengu Man began slashing at Megaman. The attacks were barely being dodged.

"I have you now…" Gate Man said as he lifted his fists.

Tengu man saw a gate open next to him and Gate Man came out. Gate Man punched him in the face and then came around with a kick. Tengu Man spun in place and Gate Man kicked him back. He appeared in a gate behind Tengu Man and kicked him back. X watched Gate Man kick Tengu Man around like a beach ball. Gate Man appeared above Tengu Man in the air and kicked him down. Tengu Man hit the ground and tried to get up. Gate Man flew down to him and opened his chest. He fired out a bunch of little birds. They surrounded Tengu Man and Gate Man backed up.

At once, they flew at Tengu Man, exploding on impact. Gate man backed away and he used his gate as a shield. Data was being destroyed all at once and Tengu Man survived the attack. A slipstream of wind formed a ball around Tengu man. He was unhurt from the attack and Gate Man saw that his attack was useless. X gasped and Megaman backed away. Tengu Man lifted his hands and shot a tornado at Gate Man.

"Tornado Hold!" Tengu Man yelled as the attack tangled up Gate Man.

Gate Man was starting to become crushed and Tengu man came at him with both blades out. Tengu man slashed Gate Man into pieces and deleted him.

"It appears how you two are so alike. You can use souls for power. I'm impressed! So let's just get this over with, shall we?" Tengu Man asked.

Megaman charged at him in rage and X did the same. Tengu Man got ready for his attacks and he began to dodge X's beam saber. He leaned down and came up to block two swipes. X slashed him from the side and Megaman used the Guts Man style change. He punched Tengu Man and a blade blocked his powerful attack. X went back in and he slashed Tengu Man's shoulder. Tengu man was open and X cut off his arm. Megaman punched him in the face and Tengu man fell to the ground. The young man walked into the room and saw them.

"Stop!!!" the young man yelled.

He cut in between Nancy and Marcus. Lan saw the gun and the young man fired at Aaron. A bullet hit Aaron's arm and he fell down. Marcus saw an opening and he tackled the young man. Nancy gasped and she ran towards the Main Computer. The young man tried to keep Marcus off of him and Rem was inside the building. 7 minutes were left on the clock and she ran towards the main computer room. The young man held Marcus back and he pressed the gun barrel against Marcus' stomach.

"You idiot, get off!!!" the young man yelled as he pulled the trigger.

Marcus received over 10 shots to the abdominal area. He fell to the ground in shock from the pain. Nancy gasped from the sight. The young man fired a bullet that pierced the top of her skull. She fell back and was shaking. Rem busted down the door from behind them and alerted the young man. He fired a shot at her chest and she gasped as the bullet pierced her.

"REM!!!" Aaron screamed as he tried to get up.


	7. FATE

"**FATE"**

"You!!!" the young man yelled as blood filled his eyes.

Lan gasped and the gun pointed at him. Aaron got up and Rem hit the ground. She heard a loud gun shot. The young man dropped his rifle and blood poured down his head. He hit the ground and was now dead. Rem tried to stand and she threw the keycard to Aaron.

"Forget me! Just stop the update! Green- Blue- Red!!!" Rem cried.

She fell back and Aaron was pissed. He saw a card port and then he inserted the key card. It didn't work because Tengu Man was blocking all card use. X powered up his gun and Tengu Man looked at him.

"You think this is the peak of my power? Let me show you the power one could achieve with Viruses!!!" Tengu Man exclaimed as he raised his arm.

The swarm of viruses flew in and started to gather data. Tengu Man allowed them to enter his body and a dark aura surrounded him. X backed away and Megaman knew something bad was coming. A blob began to form on Tengu Man's arm and it tried to engulf X. Megaman freed him and Tengu Man held his head. The glowing red light on his head cracked. He fell to his knees and his body mass increased. 3 minutes were left and Tengu Man had transformed into a giant Navi. His body was bulky to the point it was almost like a blob. It formed into a giant Tengu man and tentacles extended out along with a blob. X lifted his sword and jumped up towards Tengu Man. Aaron loaded in attack plus chips and Tengu Man lifted his pinky. X slashed it and his sword was over powered. Tengu Man knocked him against the ground and X was stunned. Megaman fired at him and Tengu man knocked him back.

"My data has evolved to a level many times beyond yours." Tengu Man said.

The area began to glow green and a voice began to speak. X was absorbed into Tengu Man and Megaman looked up.

"Now satellite uplinks." The computer said.

"It. Is. Inevitable." Tengu Man gasped as he began to uplink with the system.

X was pulled in and he couldn't move. Megaman tried using his charged attack, but it was unable to damage Tengu Man.

"I suppose you are possible to use." Tengu man said as his tentacles wrapped up Megaman.

Megaman was lifted into the air and Tengu Man absorbed him. Lan's jaw dropped and he fell down. Aaron held his head and he hit the ground. It was all over and X flowed through Tengu Man. The virus entered his body and he began to shake.

"No, this isn't it…" X said.

The virus was feeding off of his data and Tengu Man felt the power surge. He was ready for the update and X started to hallucinate.

"I can't just see it… Aaron? Why am I here? Where?" X said.

He was starting to malfunction and he saw a city. A nuclear missile hit it and destroyed everything. He saw Aaron and Lan on the ground dead. Megaman was there too and X held his head.

"Aaron, your all dead. Don't leave me here." X said.

A white aura appeared in front of him and a female Navi was in the center of it. X looked at her and was confused.

"You can't give in! It's Tengu man trying to reprogram you! Don't give in, please!!!" the Navi cried.

X began to shake and 30 seconds were left until the update. People around to world were getting the pop ups for the update reminder. X saw everything and he gained control. He saw Aaron die and it scared him.

"NO! AARON!!!!!" X screamed as he clenched his fists.

The Giga attack was activated and Tengu Man spit out Megaman. X screamed and he began to slowly delete Tengu Man from the inside. Tengu Man's body was scattered into pieces and X saw his original form flying around in the middle of the blast. Aaron looked into the Pet and he saw what was left of Tengu Man. X flew down to Tengu Man and impaled him. Tengu man gasped and X pulled out his soul. He held it and Tengu man watched X delete it. He screamed and the timer went down. Lan saw the blast clear and Megaman was on the ground. X was gone and Tengu Man was deleted. Megaman stood and he looked around. People at home were updating and everything was fine. It was over! Aaron stood and he was silent. He ran over to Rem and helped her up.

"Rem, are you alive?" Aaron asked.

"Aaron, I don't think I'm going to make it. Please, get away from here before the police arrest you. Please!" Rem cried.

Aaron helped her up and she looked at him. They kissed and Rem lost it. She saw Aaron fade out and Lan looked at them. Aaron held Rem's body and he began to cry.

"NO!!!!!!" Aaron screamed as he held her close.

The cops were at the scene from hearing the gunshots. Megaman stood and he looked around. A light shined from the sky and the Navi lowered X to the ground from his thoughts.

"Who are you? What did you do to X?" Megaman asked.

The Navi rose into the air and disappeared. X opened his eyes and he looked around.

"Am I alive?" X asked.

"Yes! You did it! It's all over!!!" Aaron said as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

"Ha, don't worry about me. He was just a push over!" X said jokingly.

Marcus was dead and Nancy had survived the shot. She gave a thumb up to Aaron and Lan. The police entered the room and Aaron dropped the gun. They saw the young man on the ground and all of them were taken into custody. Everything was over and Aaron got a fair trial. They all attended Rem's funeral and Aaron sat at the front row. Tears filled his eyes and Lan felt sad for the people who had been affected. Aaron went up to the casket and gave Rem a bouquet. It lay on her chest in her hands. Aaron sat down and looked at Lan. He stared back at the coffin and the funeral was filled with tears. Nancy dropped flowers on Marcus' coffin. She never had the chance to marry him. The one held responsible was in her mind.

"Marcus, I'll make sure that the system is still the best. I promise!" Nancy said while wiping the tears from her eyes.

**2 weeks later…**

aron sat at his computer with a cup of coffee. He had thrown away his cigarettes and then he opened his video journal.

"I only got 3 e-mails from Lan after the funeral. He moved back to his old neighborhood, which I believe was for the better. Rem's family moved away and I got left here. Life went normally now that the second programmer is dead. The police found everything in his house proving that he was behind it. I couldn't stop thinking about the funeral. X and I are the only ones that can save this town. I would kill to have Lan help me out. Lan agreed that this town was a little scary to live in… Well," said Aaron before he sipped his glass, "that made two of us."

X stood and Navies passed by. A virus attacked and he charged up his gun. A virus turned to him and they both charged each other. X held up his gun and fired a shot straight into the middle of them. The viruses separated and X smiled.

"Bring it on!" X exclaimed.

The end

-So far, this is the end of this series. For all of you who actually enjoyed this, I will make another. As you are reading this now, I have already completed Battle Network X 2 and I am working on X3 and Battle Network Zero. It's a long jump ahead. Expect updates weekly! Thanks once more for reading and for reviewing. Peace out!


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